This is mostly for the vegetarians who read this, but really, anyone who has input, I'd love to hear it.

How much would someone have to pay you to make you eat meat?

I saw an episode of Survivor once, where they were doing the obligatory nasty food challenge. The contestants had to spin the wheel and eat whatever it landed on, and some of the stuff was like bugs and live worms and whatnot, and then there was some stuff like an apple and a burger if you got lucky.

Anyway, there was this one girl who said she was a vegan and it landed on a fish or something, and she refused to eat it, and the other contestants were all "I had to eat a worm, and this bitch is mad about having to eat a fish? What the hell?" And I was at home watching and thinking, "Ummmm... there's a million dollars on the line, what are you fucking nuts?"

Then, another time, I saw an episode of Fear Factor, where there was a girl who was allergic to milk (like I am), and they had a challenge where you had to suck milk directly out of the cow and spit it into a glass and fill it up. The girl did it without hesitation, and the the host asked her "but, you're allergic, why would you do that?" and she pointed out there was $50,000 on the line and fuck getting sick. I was like "hell yeah."

So anyway, would you suspend your ethical (or allergic) diet for a guaranteed payoff? What about for a chance at one? How much would it have to be in either case?

Oh, easily.

...but I don't believe it is unethical to kill and eat animals. I have many reasons for being a vegetarian, but the primary one is that I don't want to support the mass-market meat industry and all its attendant cruelty, environmental impact, health problems, etc. Eating one meal of meat, even if it was purchased from "Factory Farms R Us - overusing antibiotics since 1958", isn't going to affect anything overly much. I'm sure my body would be pretty unhappy about it, because I haven't eaten meat in years, but I could deal.

I am as strict with myself as I am because it's easier psychologically to eat no meat than to eat very little meat (slippery slope). Also, it makes more of a point...for example, vegetarians have an impact on what restaurants will serve because a vegetarian won't walk into a restaurant that has no vegetarian options. An occasional meat eater can walk into any restaurant because, if there are no veggie options or even if the veggie options aren't any good, they can still find something to eat....so their impact on the bottom line is much less.

Let's see....I don't think $100 would be enough....it's not worth breaking a good track record....but I'd probably do it for less than $1000. Maybe $500?

For a chance at money...well...I'd just view it statistically. A 50% chance of winning $1000....a 1% chance of winning $50,000, etc.

And it depends on how much I'm being asked to eat...a bite would be cheaper than a whole worm-sandwich, and it'd take a lot of money to for me to be a carnivore for a day.

However, in defense of the vegan - vegans are different - way different. To put it fairly simply, most vegans consider animals to be people too. They equate killing an animal with murder, and keeping animals for their products (milk, eggs, honey, etc.) as slavery. Would you eat human meat for money? Would you drink human milk if it came from women locked up in giant factory farms hooked up to milking machines and forced to lactate with hormones and drugs and whose children are locked in tiny pens like dog crates so their meat stays tender so it can be sold as a delicacy? How much money would that take?

So I'm not surprised a vegan wouldn't eat animal even for a chance to win a lot of money.

Re: Oh, easily.

for the right price I absolutely would eat human flesh. Anyway, to complicate your story a bit, the girl lost that particular turn because she was unable to get herself to eat the fish. On the next round she did make herself eat a bug though. So really, its not so cut and dry as "I can't eat any animal at any cost."

As for your statistics Fear Factor is (usually) 8 people trying for $50,000, so well within your odds.

Survivor on the other hand is 16 people going for $1million, but what's more, there are consolation prizes along the way. IIRC, the runner up gets $100K. And even the first person eliminated gets $2500, for their threedays of island hardship. Everyone else is somewhere inbetween, so yeah, its probably well within your cut-off.

ok, that argument I actually find quite sensible. The not wanting to be seen violating your principals thing. I don't know why it makes more sense to me than the just not willing to do it argument, but what can I say? I'm funny that way. I also appreciate that you acknowledge that there is still a payoff where you're willing to do it.

Hot damn! You mean you'd pay me to eat meat? This sounds like an excellent opportunity. I think I'll declare myself a vegan this very minute so I can start cashing in.

The only meat I don't eat right now is pork. Well, pork and meats that are hard to come by, like human flesh, worms, and so forth. I'd eat bacon or souvlaki for $5. Other pork would probably cost more. Like at least $100.

I don't think I have any real ethical food aversions. In order for me to not eat something for ethical reasons, it would probably have to be something endangered or human. I don't think I'd ever be able to eat people without going insane from guilt. So I don't think I'd eat human for any reason.

Endangered species is another story, though. While I would be ethically opposed to eating something endangered, I probably would if the price was right and I didn't have to worry about any legal consequences. I don't know how much it would have to be, but it would have to be a lot. A "you could retire early and comfortably right now if you eat this" amount.

Probably about $100. I've been vegetarian my whole life, and I now make an exception for seafood (especially sushi) when I've been drinking, but I find meat pretty disgusting. I think eating a worm or eating a piece of beef would probably be about equally gross to me. I don't have any ethical issues with either.

I wandered in from a mutual friend's journal...

...and have been vegetarian for almost twenty-four years. I just wouldn't do it, except if the dead cow or whatever appeared bfore me in a buddhaform and say, "listen, my dear, I'm already dead, and you could do a lot of good with this money, and no one is trying to manipulate you'. I was stuck on top of a mountain once with a bitchy female and a nice guy, and the chick put meat on akll the remaining food, just to try to control me and force me to eat it, and I did without food for four frigging days just to make it clear that I can't be forced by jerks. If someone said, 'oh, my human brother died, and if you have a brother burger I'll give you four million dollars and not make a big deal out of it, and I don't mind if you do it or not', then I might just do it if appropriate. *shrug* I'm buddhist, so every situation had its proper, or appropriate, own energy...